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2007 01 19

Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park

Seattle's new urban amenity, the "Olympic Sculpture Park" is about to transform that city's waterfront. The latest American city to embrace art and culture as an essential part of the 21st Century urban experience, Seattle is another model for Toronto's waterfront regeneration.

Though it includes some impressive artworks, including an appropriately huge steel piece by Richard Serra, what's most interesting is how the park changes Seattle. Despite its relatively small size – not quite nine acres – the new facility manages the remarkable feat of reconnecting a city and its waterfront. In the process, it will surely cause Seattleites to see their downtown in an entirely new and positive light.

For Torontonians, the message won't be lost – even the most toxic and degraded of industrial sites (the park was for decades an oil tank farm) can be turned into places of surpassing beauty and, even better, civic enhancement.